My Golden Sweetheart
by Cooper666
Summary: Total Fluff. Fluffier than a pair of fluffy slippers. Dawn reflects on her life with Connor. Warning: May Contain fluff equal to a teddy bear. You have been warned.


Buffy still hasn't stopped asking. She can't seem to understand exactly what I was thinking when I agreed to marry Connor. All she sees is that he's not the kind of guy she would marry. He's—thankfully—not a Riley...although he is an Angel. Of course, that's not his official last name. He got his name changed through Wolfram and Hart after Angel took it over, so we're now the O'Malley's. It was Angel's original last name when he was in Ireland. Connor was always so sweet to me when we first met that I fell in love with him almost immediately. We first met when Angel and him came over to help fight the First. Angel was planning on coming alone but Connor was bored as hell so Cordelia made him take his son along for the ride.  
  
And a hell of a ride it was.  
  
We found out that the only way to completely close the hellmouth and destroy the First was to unleash the powers of the Key. Buffy was not happy. I was so scared I could have peed my pants when it came down to those last few minutes when Willow completed her spell. She ended up doing two, like planned. The first one activated the other slayers but it still wasn't enough. So she had to continue and do the second spell. Connor stayed by my side the entire time. I learned recently that he had not been ordered too like I had thought, but had gone voluntarily. The spell unleashed all Key's power and swept through the entire school, killing every demon or living thing that wasn't one hundred percent human. Anya was as scared as I was when it came towards her, maybe even more. We weren't sure if I was going to survive or not but instead now I'm even better, although in the end, even Sunnydale survived! The Key went bye-bye when it left me so I'm about as human as everyone else is. Connor got hurt pretty badly through. The Key recognized him as a demon and tortured it like it did the First. All I remember is wishing he didn't get hurt before I lose consciousness and then he looked up at me in amazement and that was it.  
  
I can still remember the exact first time we met. I wanted to go to the Bronze with some of my friends and I wearing this stupid brown halter top that had big splotches on it and said 'Sometimes I get dirty' written on it and a big pink kiss in the center and a pair of seriously tight jeans. I was halfway out the door when Buffy caught me and had a fit. We were screaming our heads off at each other and then someone coughed. We both turned to find Angel and Connor standing in the door way. I've asked him a million times how long he was standing there but Connor happens to be an expert at tactfully changing subjects that I've never gotten a straight answer from him. I got so embarrassed at meeting him in such revealing clothes that I always blush just thinking about it. He had this amused look in his eye and his hair was falling all over his forehead and he was wearing this little smirk that still annoys me to no end. Unfortunately, he knows that.  
  
Angel and Buffy were weird. They kept making these little remarks about cookie dough that no one else got. Maybe they're on drugs. Anyway, Angel got upset about Spike and Spike got upset about Angel and I got pissed at Connor and Connor got pissed at Angel and Buffy got pissed at everyone. It would have been funny if I hadn't been so angry. I wasn't really angry through. Connor and I had been getting along so good...and now he'd have to leave. Spike is like an older brother to me, even after what he did to Buffy, so I stood up to him against Angel. Buffy yelled at Angel saying he'd been trying to eat her before she finished cooling....which made no sense whatsoever. Spike was swearing in British (which is soooo like another language...) and I was yelling at Buffy because I couldn't understand her and Angel because he was making Connor leave.  
  
Connor found this absolutely hilarious.  
  
He has this slick way of acting so that nobody really gets to know him very well but he knows everything about you. He just watches everything that goes on quietly, so you don't even notice he's there. I swear to God that guy takes notes because he has the best damn memory I've ever tested. A couple of hours before he was leaving, we sat outside on top of the hood of Angel's car, looking at the stars. He had one arm behind my back and my head was resting on his shoulder. I knew that he could probably hear my heartbeat and would fell my body tense up but hell I was nervous. I kept on trying to look calm and act like I hung out alone with guys every day but it wasn't working very well until finally he whispered in my ear, "Relax, Dawn," and I remember just closing my eyes and feeling his breathe on my neck. The problem was when I turned to him, I could see into the kitchen window. A silhouette of a short blonde kissing someone, although I couldn't see who. I was so startled I gasped and almost fell off the hood but Connor caught me just in time. Both his arms were wrapped around me and we were pressed together against the cold metal of the car. Connor had the same look in his eyes that he had when we had first met: amused. But this time he started laughing and I followed suite. We were too busy laughing our heads off to realize that Angel had planned on leaving and had left the house. Again, he coughed and we both turned towards him, completely caught off guard.  
  
I learned later that it hadn't been Buffy kissing either Angel or Spike in the Kitchen; it had been Anya and Xander. And damn, that was embarrassing. I phoned the hotel later that night to make sure they had gotten back safely and apparently they hadn't. Angel had tried giving Connor 'the talk'. Oh, that had to suck. Connor had gotten so sick of Angel that when they stopped for gas, he took the car and drove off—after Angel had filled it up, of course. He had driven around to a local hotel and parked the car there, knowing that Angel wouldn't try walking all the way to L.A. because it was too close to sunrise. Connor left the car and came back. I mean, seriously, he came back. To me. When he first woke me up—holy, this was corny: he threw rocks at my window, how old is that?—I thought he meant that he had walked. In reality, he had hitch-hiked back with no problems. That was when we decided to sneak out. Remember how I said the first time I had met him I had wanted to go to the Bronze? While because we were so busy I hadn't had the chance to go. Three guesses to where we went!  
  
The place was crowded with the regulars but once we started dancing, everything just seemed to fit. I know from reading Buffy's diary (seriously, you'd think she'd hide it somewhere other than under her pillow!) that Angel couldn't dance a step. Thankfully, Connor wasn't like that. We spent the entire night dancing and talking during breaks. It had been such a relief after all the tension with the First. I found out later that Angel phoned Buffy once he got to the hotel and as soon as she realized I was missing, she was hysterical. Willow told me afterwards that she had yelled at Angel about letting his son bake her baby sisters dough and eating it. Still don't get that, and apparently, neither did Willow. Connor and I got in loads of trouble, I got grounded for three weeks and Connor got kicked out again.  
  
When I first found out that Angel had kicked Connor out of a place to stay, I was about as hysterical as Buffy had been. Surprisingly, Connor was fine. He came back up to Sunnydale (that guy has a way of getting anywhere he wants with absolutely no money, whatever his secret is, I still don't know even after a year and a half of marriage!) and did something that no one could have expected. He went to school.  
  
My school.  
  
I love my husband. I really, truly do. It was perfect. We shared a few classes and although I have no idea how he was able to get into my grade after never going to school before, he managed. He got a job teaching martial art classes. Who knew he could do that? Seriously? Anyway, it paid well enough for him to go to school half decent. Somehow or another, he got to the top of almost all of his classes. They started this new program for Physical Education; everyone has to run three to five kilometers each class depending on what grade you're in. I knew this was going to be bad when I first heard of it. Lucky for me, my athletic boyfriend shared the class and kept me going. I was grumpy as hell afterwards and I to make him stop kissing me immediately after I finished so I could at least get my breath back first before he took my breath away a second time. Buffy noticed I was more cheerful after school and wasn't so upset at being left out all the time as I used to be but didn't comment...often. I frequently heard her talking to Willow or Xander or Giles about me. Not that I ever answered any of her questions. And trust me, she had plenty of those.  
  
That was four years ago. I finished high school and it was only at my graduation did Buffy find out that Connor went to school with me. The look on her face was priceless. Months afterwards, Connor decided to surprise me with something. It had been a perfect day and I had told Buffy that I was going to the museum with some of my friends. Instead, Connor and I went to the park. This squirrel came right up to use as we sat at the bench talking, watching everything happen from the kids on the swings to the leaves falling gently. It had been in the fall so all the plants had had this gold-y tinge to them. I told Connor I loved that. The golden plants and leaves and everything been perfect even if it was chilly out. Connor remembered that. I have no idea how, but he did.  
  
It was freezing cold out, the coldest California ever got, anyway. He still had that childish look about him—still does—that always made him look innocent...unless he was wearing that most delicious smirk of his that I have a habit of kissing away. I was wearing his jacket home and when we finally got to the corner that we usually split up on, I began taking it off. He stopped me and informed me that unless I wanted to turn into ice, I should keep it. Normally, I would have protested just a touch but he was wearing that smirk again, how can I fight against that? He kissed me good-bye and was gone before I could say anything else. Sometimes that guy does things that I don't think anyone else could get away with. It was only later when I was in the warmth of my own room did I realize that Connor had done the same thing Angel had with Buffy. She still wore his leather jacket sometimes, when she really needy strength. Like father, like son? I can clearly remember thinking this. That exact phrase. And then I though, Buffy was in love with Angel. I think that was the first time I realized how much Connor meant to me. I sat on my bed and pulled on Connor's jacket and stuck my hands deep into the pockets. And felt something.  
  
I didn't expect to find anything. I really didn't. Instead I found a note and a small velvet, navy blue box. Oh the horror that corny stuff can make me do. The note was really a poem,  
  
Darling, you control me, Every move I make I'll give you anything you want If you'll agree to go on one more date.  
  
Just to hold you in my arms To smell your sweet perfume To hear you wish of golden dreams And golden leaves and blooms.  
  
To feel your soft skin And the flutter of your heart To know that you trust me to keep you safe It kills me when we're apart.  
  
I work so hard For that next kiss So open the box you hold and Let me see you wear it round you wrist.  
  
Oh God. Yes, people, that's right, he's a poet too. I almost cried when I read that. Seriously, that's how much it touched me. I had been holding the box upside down and when I turned it over it said my name in large sparkling gold letters. I think my heart broke right then and there. I still wear it, to this day. When I opened that dark box, I felt the world had stopped. Inside laid a golden bracelet. I picked it off the light rosy material and the let the box slide out of my fingers and fall onto the bed. At first, I thought it was a charm bracelet but nothing hung off of it. Tiny leaves and flowers decorated the entire thing, no chain, just delicate fine details. The clasp on the back almost made me cry. One leaf detached from a flower and on the back of it, it read, To my Sunrise, from Connor, in tiny handwriting. I have worn that bracelet everyday since I got it. When we got married, a year afterwards, I still wore it. The poem lies in my jewelry box in the home that we share now, directly between L.A. and Sunnydale. I can laugh at it now. Now that were married, no more hardships, no more 'what if Buffy finds out?' or 'why in hell do you want to go to L.A.?'. That last one is something Connor has said before. Our last spat. I don't even call them fights anymore, their just tiny, over within a couple hours, two days has been our longest so far.  
  
Everyone came to our wedding...except Angel. Cordelia had apparently had some...difficulties with demon possession but was alright and she had come, along with the Fang Gang (please don't tell Angel I call them that—he'll be less than pleased.). Willow, Xander, Giles, Anya and the rest of the Scoobies came too. Even Buffy managed too, and Spike was able as well because of a ring that Wolfram and Hart had found that would let him go in to the sunlight for a short period of time. A mass of Slayers attended as well. It was an outside wedding, in a gigantic garden...in the Fall, too. Angel hasn't spoken to Connor or me since that night they left after the First. I think he wants to, but doesn't want to be ignored by his son. And I think Connor wants to talk to him too, but doesn't want to cast away like last time. Personally, I'm still mad at Angel. He should know better. You'd think that he'd have enough guts to come the goddamned wedding.  
  
Oh, did I mention I'm pregnant? Found out last month. Connor is acting happier than ever...probably because he figures the best protection against pregnancy is already being pregnant. I wonder if I should tell him that for another eight months, I'm not doing anything. It's not good for the baby. Everyone asks me, why I married him. The son of two famous-for-their- malicious-murders vampires, who was raised in a hell dimension, who doesn't talk to him father, who made it on his own, with no money or place to live, who can make my knees go weak and the sweetest of sweet poetry. I love him for all the reason everyone else avoids him.  
  
...Buffy still thinks he's the jerk that baked and ate my cookies. Whatever that means. 


End file.
